Tougher Pinehurst ready to roughen up golf's best

PINEHURST, North Carolina, Tuesday (AFP) Golfers who thought they knew what to expect at the 105th US Open found a rougher, tougher Pinehurst course than they saw here at the 1999 US Open during Monday's first practice round.

Domed-shaped greens on the 7,214-yard layout will still send errant approach shots rolling off the undulating putting surfaces and into trouble.

"It's going to test you mentally," eighth-ranked Australian Adam Scott said. "As soon as you make a mistake you are working. You're scrambling."

But many of the shaved areas alongside greens have just enough rough lurking to foil players who would rather putt off green-like surfaces. Now there will be an even greater premium on uphill chips to set up higher-percentage putts.

"This golf course is not going to beat you up on length. It's going to beat you up from the middle of the fairway into the green," Pinehurst groundskeeper Paul Jett said.

The change will make the short game even more critical in Thursday's first round of the year's second major championship. The US Open returns here just six years after the late Payne Stewart's dramatic 72nd-hole triumph.

"It seems like there is more rough than in 99," said 1996 US Open runner-up Tom Lehman. "It seemed to me in 99 you could advance closer to the green almost every time out of the rough. It doesnt seem that way now."

Masters champion Tiger Woods, who reclaimed the world number one ranking from Fiji's Vijay Singh on Monday, seeks a 10th major title and fourth victory of the year, one that would put him halfway to a Grand Slam.

"You can't think about that unless you have won the first three and go to the last one with a chance to win," Woods said. "You have got to take it one step at a time."

Woods figures to be tested by Singh and Mickelson, the runner-up to Stewart here in 1999. Each has won three titles this year. Also confident is American Chris DiMarco, a playoff loser in each of the past two majors.

"I really feel like I'm putting myself in position to win," DiMarco said. "I played exceptionally good golf both weeks. If my game is there, I expect to be right there again." Players will be trying to avoid certain spots on Pinehurst's tricky greens, precision targets that put a premium upon reaching fairways off the tee to avoid the typical dense rough of a US Golf Association (USGA) setup.

"The way to approach this course is to start with the greens and move back," Lehman said. "Its about missing certain spots."

Players ripped the USGA in 2004 for making certain holes at Shinnecock Hills too tough. A seventh-hole disaster that required repeated final-round watering is unlikely to be repeated this year, although Mickelson would like to see it.

"I hope they make it as ridiculous as last year," Mickelson said. "I would have as good a chance as anybody. I would love for them to do what they (usually) do."

Last year's Sunday mess produced the highest US Open final-round scores since 1972, prompting Scott Verplank to say, "All the things I practiced my whole life didn't matter because my whole life I played golf."

Defending champion Retief Goosen solved Shinnecock's woes but Goosen missed the cut here in 1999, firing a 12-over par 82 in the last round.

"I wasn't particularly fond of it," Goosen said. "I'm in a different frame of mind now. I feel like I can hit any shot I need to hit. So I'm looking forward to it."

Spain's Sergio Garcia, fresh from his first PGA title in a year and his best putting performance since 2002, likes his chances of being the first European to win the US Open since England's Tony Jacklin in 1970.

"I'm hitting the ball well and my putting is starting to come around," said Garcia. "It's getting there. It has been improving slowly for the past month or so. It's just a matter of hard work and keep believing in myself."

Garcia won the PGA Booz Allen Classic, the third time he has won on the week before the US Open, and he did so with just 24 putts in Sunday's final round, a hint his putting struggles might be solved at just the right moment.

Garcia's best major showing was his 1999 PGA Championship runner-up effort to Woods. He remains confident that he will win a major.

"It really doesn't bother me. I know what I'm capable of doing," Garcia said. "I'm not worried about it. I know I'm going to have chances."

Top US amateur Ryan Moore said he will turn professional next week and accept a sponsor's invitation to next week's US PGA Barclays Classic. He won the US amateur and collegiate titles plus US Amateur Public Links crown.

Hot and muggy weather greeted golfers Monday. High temperatures are expected to continue all week with a chance of evening rain before the start and scattered weekend thundershowers.